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Lucky break: Ann Sherry no longer Carnival's chairman

Poor Carnival. The British-American mega-cruise company has been spreading COVID-19 throughout the land. From the Ruby Princess alone: over 600 Australians infected, 10 passenger deaths. And 1,100 crew members, many sick, still stranded offshore.

Amid a bitter blame game over who was responsible for letting the plague ship's 2,700 passengers dock unhindered in Sydney on March 19, now the subject of a NSW Police investigation, Carnival Australia president Sture Myrmell called out the "vilification" of the company in a pre-recorded video-message. It's the preferred PR delivery method of those who want to avoid pesky follow-up questions.

Ann Sherry. Her exit from the Carnival chair was as quiet as it was well timed. Quentin Jones

Speaking of questions, two were top of mind for us. First, who the hell is Myrmell, and second, where's Ann Sherry?

For years, the poised and high-profile Sherry, one of the nation's most press-savvy directors, has been synonymous with Carnival Cruises in Australia. She ran the local arm for eight years as CEO, before becoming its chairman in 2016. But through this entire crisis, which could surely use her experience and media smarts to navigate, she's been utterly absent.

Turns out she has every right to be. She hasn’t been Carnival’s chairman since March 2019! At least, according to her LinkedIn account.

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Not that anyone seems to have noticed. And the confusion is totally understandable, given she was as of Sunday still listed as Carnival Australia's chairman on the Carnival website (she doesn't appear to have been directly replaced) and was even in March 2020 still regularly referred to as such in much of the media (with few exceptions). She was even introduced as the cruise company's current chairman on the invitation of a speaking gig she's giving in two weeks' time.

Her other corporate board profiles (at NAB, Sydney Airport and Enero Group) have been updated to list her, accurately, as Carnival's former chairman. Carnival itself told us she "remains a valued adviser to the organisation".

A March 2019 departure – which Carnival declined an opportunity to confirm on Sunday – would mean she'd stepped off the top role well before all of this happened. In terms of timing, exits don't get luckier ...

More than 10,000 people poured into the nation's capital on the ninth day of protests over police brutality, but what awaited them was a city that no longer felt as if it was being occupied by its own country's military.